This invention relates generally to wheelchairs for disabled persons, and more particularly to a wheelchair that folds to occupy little space while being stored or transported in a vehicle. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a wheelchair that may be folded and partially disassembled to allow for convenient options in storage and space for transporting in a vehicle.
Folded wheelchairs for disabled persons are well known in the art. Generally, folding wheelchairs are folded along a vertical axis that brings together the wheels of the chairs. With a canvas seat and a canvas back, such chairs may be readily and quickly unfolded to be placed into service.
While such folded wheelchairs have the advantage of quick assembly, they suffer from the disadvantage of bulk. Folding such a chair overcomes the width of the chair as a dimension across a front elevation of the chair, but does not overcome the height of the chair in the same elevation or the depth of the chair. Thus, there is still considerable bulk with regard to the overall volume that the chair might occupy in a place of storage or in the trunk of a vehicle. Moreover, this bulk controls remaining storage space or luggage space, as conventional folded wheelchairs are not adapted for easy disassembly so that parts of the wheelchair may be stored in convenient recesses to maximize storage space for other articles.
With the above-described difficulties accompanying most known folding wheelchairs in view, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a folding wheelchair that has an axis for folding which allows for a more advantageous profile for storing and transporting the folded wheelchair.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a folded wheelchair that has means for disassembling part of the wheelchair to take advantage of arranging storage of the wheelchair with storage of other articles in a limited storage space. These and other objects have been achieved by the present invention.
A folding wheelchair includes a pair of spaced apart posts with pivotally connected side rails. A front leg is pivotally connected to the side rail. A side tensional support structure is pivotally connected to each leg and extends rearwardly to the post. The side rails may be pivoted toward a top end of the posts to fold the wheel chair. A pair of front wheels are attached to the front legs, and a pair of quick release rear wheels are connected to the pairs of posts. Cross members provide seat and back structure to support a person seated in the wheelchair and to join or interconnect the spaced apart side frames and posts.
The above-noted objectives and other advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art as the invention is further explained in the accompanying detailed description and drawings.